978-1457663543 Chapter 9

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CHAPTER 9

EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND NEW MEDIA: CHALLENGING FORM

KEY OBJECTIVES

•

Describe experimental film and media as cultural practices.

•

Explain how experimental works make and draw on aesthetic histories.

•

Point out how these works explore the formal properties of their media.

•

Discuss how experimental media can both challenge, and become part of, dominant film forms and

institutions.

•

Examine some of the common organizations, styles, and perspectives in experimental media.

•

Show how viewers can prepare themselves to watch and appreciate experimental works.

•

Explain ways that the challenges of experimental media contribute another dimension of significance to the

film experience

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

Chapter 9 explores experimental audiovisual media from its origins to the present day, giving students the

necessary tools to watch and discuss some of film history’s most complex, challenging, and possibly most rewarding

cinematic endeavors. It starts with a short history of experimental film and media practices, beginning with the

parallel developments in motion picture technology and modernism in the arts in the early twentieth century. It then

examines experimental and abstract narrative forms; associative, structural, and participatory organizational

practices; and surrealist, lyrical, and critical stylistic orientations. It concludes with a consideration of how

experimental media challenge and expand viewers’ perceptions.

This chapter focuses on experimental practices that are alternative to commercial narrative cinema and to

corporate– or state-sponsored documentaries. It draws students’ attention to media artists who often have only been able

to make their work and show or distribute it thanks to the financial assistance of universities, cultural

foundations, and government agencies. It explores how experimental forms, though in some ways the least

accessible mode of film and media, have fundamental bearing on how we see.

TEACHING THE OPENING VIGNETTE

Our hope is that Lemonade (2016) will serve as a particularly accessible introduction to this chapter on

experimental film and new media. Co–directed by Beyoncé and Kahlil Joseph, this 57–minute video is an

extraordinary adventure in sound, color, music, and word. The film is structured by eleven phases, ranging from

“Intuition” to “Redemption,” through which a woman (Beyoncé) coping with infidelity must pass in order to find

her salvation. The wide range of emotions allows the filmmakers to explore a multiplicity of techniques in editing

and mise-en-scène, with each chapter having its own innovative look and texture. Consider showing in class the

chapter “Resurrection.” With its rich décor, changing digital formats, and powerful imagery, it exemplifies the

film’s ambition to explore fully the potential of new audiovisual media. To prompt discussion, ask students why a

music video is used for this chapter’s opening vignette. No doubt the students are familiar with music videos and

may intuitively associate them with the radical techniques discussed in this chapter. Point out that in the Internet

Movie Database (IMDB), Lemonade is categorized both as “music video” and “art film.” You may also wish to list

feature filmmakers, whose techniques are considered unconventional or experimental, who began their careers making,

and continue to make, music videos—such as Spike Jonze (Her and Where the Wild Things Are) and

Michel Gondry (The Science of Sleep and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).

TEACHING THE CHAPTER

Experimentation with form and abstract imagery has occurred throughout film history. While students may not be

familiar with the leading luminaries of experimental films, they are likely to recognize many experimental film and media

practices because they have been appropriated by music video directors and animators and have even been used in short

films on Sesame Street.

When teaching this chapter, take advantage of the ever-expanding number of online resources to increase

students’ exposure to contemporary experimental artists. In addition to screening one of the Film in Focus movies or

another feature-length work, consider punctuating your lecture and class discussion with an array of experimental shorts.

(ubuweb.tv is a terrific resource.)

Teaching Technical Vocabulary and Key Concepts

This chapter doesn’t present a huge amount of new vocabulary, but given the challenging nature of the subject,

it would be especially important for students to have a full grasp of the appropriate technical vocabulary from the

previous chapters, particularly Chapters 3 through 6. Depending on which experimental films are screened in class,

it would be nearly impossible to discuss some of the imagery and techniques employed without being comfortable

using technical film terms. Conduct an in-class review or administer a short quiz after the screening. Ask the class to

define technical terms or to describe the film’s organizational patterns, list the narrative time and locations, and

identify its stylistic orientation, using as much technical vocabulary as possible.

TEACHING THE VIEWING CUES

1910s-1920s: European Avant-Garde Movements, p. 315

What historical precedents in the arts might have shaped the strategies used in the film you just viewed? Does

aligning the film with a historical precedent shed light on its aims? Explain.

Invite colleagues from art history, literature, history, or language departments to come speak about modernism, or

ask them to suggest works of art or readings that might be illustrative.

Formalisms: Narrative Experimentation and Abstraction, p. 324

Consider how abstraction is achieved and used in a film screened for class. How do repetition and variation

contribute to the film’s shape?

Ask students to respond to this Viewing Cue on an exam or in a journal entry or short reaction paper. In class, screen

some of the short films of pioneering video artist Lillian Schwartz, created in conjunction with computer scientists at

Bell Labs in New York City in the early 1970s. Or watch animator Jodie Mack’s Unsubscribe #1: Special Offer Inside

(2010), the first in a series of shorts that manipulates and abstracts everyday paper goods into rapidly morphing

geometric shapes. (These films can be found at lillian.com and jodiemack.com)

Experimental Organizations: Associative, Structural, and Participatory, p. 325

What is the principle of organization of the next experimental film you see in class? Identify the most representative shot

or sequence, and discuss its meaning.

This Viewing Cue is an excellent question for students to ponder in a journal entry.

Experimental Film Styles and Approaches, p. 332

Watch the clip of Gently Down the Stream (1981) online. What specific images or words solicit your attention?

What devices remind you of the elements of cinema? Are there any elements that bring to mind influences outside of

film?

To explore the religious imagery, you can ask students to research paintings and statues of the Virgin of

Guadalupe—or the iconography around a secular figure like Jesus Malverde, the so-called patron saint of Mexican

narcotics traffickers. Or ask whether any of the students work out on rowing machines like the one pictured in the clip.

Contrast this clip with video artist Ximena Cuevas’ El Diablo en la Piel (Devil in the Flesh)— available

online—and discuss how both works rely on and subvert classical Hollywood and Catholic art conventions having to do

with female suffering and the mortifications of the flesh.

Expressive Styles and Forms, p. 336

Watch a clip from The Future (2011) online. What aspects of the clip employ a traditional narrative style? What

aspects of this narrative film bring to mind experimental film techniques?

Use this Viewing Cue as a prompt for discussion at the beginning of a class following a screening (or at the end of the

screening), or on a test to gauge students’ comprehension of the film or films screened.

TEACHING THE FORM IN ACTION

Lyrical Style in Bridges-Go-Round (1958), p. 335

The word “cinema” shares a Greek root with kinetic motion. This kinship is often most evident when bodies in

motion are filmed. Consider placing Shirley Clarke’s Bridges–Go–Round (1958) in a dance with city symphony

films like Manhatta (1921) or installations like Bill Brand’s 1980 Masstransiscope, which is a mural installed in a

New York City subway station and animated by the movement of passing trains. Or partner the rhythmic editing of

the bridges with the way NY Export: Opus Jazz (2010) shoots the choreography of Jerome Robbins’s 1958 “ballet in

sneakers” in various New York City locations. Ask students to comment on each film’s use of vivid color. Or

screen Eva Weber’s 2008 short, The Solitary Life of Cranes. How does Weber, like Clarke before her, reveal the

dynamic nature of the massive but invisible city structures right before our eyes?

TEACHING THE FILMS IN FOCUS

Avant-Garde Visions in

Meshes of the Afternoon

(1943), pp. 318-319

Have students map the film by following the “narrative trajectories” of each of these inanimate “characters.”

Discussion Question 1:

What is the significance of the key, the knife, and the mirror? This question could open a

post-screening discussion of Deren’s film.

Discussion Question 2:

How does Meshes of the Afternoon draw upon traditions from poetry and painting? Look at

pages from William Blake’s illustrated editions of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in class. Or find

paintings by Odilon Redon online from the MoMA exhibition of his work in 2005–2006.

Formal Play in

Ballet mécanique

(1924), pp. 326-327

There are many potential points of entry for discussing Ballet mécanique, among them Léger’s involvement with

the cubist and futurist movements in painting.

Discussion Question 1:

How does the repetition of familiar geometric shapes create a rhythm that, along with the

music, propels the film forward?

Discussion Question 2:

Spend some time discussing the film’s title. How does it encourage certain interpretations of the

images that follow?

Discussion Question 3:

How does the fracturing of the female image here differ from the fetishization of women

characteristic of classical Hollywood narrative?

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS

Alternative Activity

FILMS CITED

Allegretto (1936)

Anemic Cinema (1926)

The Art of Vision (1965)

Automatic Moving Company (1910)

Ballet mécanique (1924)

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927)

Black Girl (1966)

The Blood of a Poet (1930)

Blue (1993)

The Book of All the Dead (1975-1994)

Borderline (1930)

Bowling Alley (1995)

Bridges-Go-Round (1958)

British Sounds (1970)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Chelsea Girls (1966)

The Clock (2010)

Decasia (2002)

Destino (1945, 2003)

Empire (1964)

Enthusiasm (1931)

Entr’acte (1924)

Eye Myth (1967)

Film About a Woman Who… (1974)

Film No. 4 (Bottoms) (1966)

Film Number 7 (1951)

Fireworks (1947)

Flaming Creatures (1963)

Flesh (1968)

The Flicker (1965)

The Garden of Earthly Delights (1981)

Gently Down the Stream (1981)

Giant (2016)

Glimpse of the Garden (1957)

The Hand (1965)

Handsworth Songs (1986)

Heart of Glass (1976)

Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998)

Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966)

The Hour of the Furnaces (1968)

“Human Behavior”

(1993)

Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) La

région centrale (1971)

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

Lemon (1969)

Lemonade (2016)

Letter to Jane (1972)

Lucifer Rising (1972)

Manhatta (1921)

Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Melancholia (2011)

Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Mothlight (1963)

Multiple Orgasm (1976)

Nervous System (1994)

Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (1989)

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012)

Passion of Remembrance (1986)

The Patriot (1979)

Perfumed Nightmare (1978)

Portrait of Jason (1967)

Rape (1969)

Rapture (1999)

Rat Life and Diet in North America (1968)

Rhythmus 21 (1921)

Riddles of the Sphinx (1977)

Rose Hobart (1936)

Scorpio Rising (1964)

Se7en (1995)

Serene Velocity (1970)

The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928)

Serene Velocity (1970)

Spirited Away (2001)

Street of Crocodiles (1986)

Strike (1925)

Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989)

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (1968)

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2 (2005)

Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978-1979)

They Are Lost to Vision Altogether (1989)

Third Eye Butterfly (1968)

Tongues Untied (1989)

24-Hour Psycho (1993)

Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967) Un

chien andalou (Andalusian Dog, 1928) Vertical

Roll (1972)

Video Fish (1975)

WVLNT (Or Wavelength for Those Who Don’t Have the Time) (2003)

Wavelength (1967)

Weekend (1967)

Window Water Baby Moving (1959)

Zorns Lemma (1970)